Flat mat and crate assembled from same



L. D. TRUESDEL ET AL 3,450,292 FLAT MAT AND CRATE ASSEMBLED FROM SAME June 17', 1969 Sheet Filed May 31, 1967 I INVENTORS [,ezzzfl 22 was ,Z WZZZ 225%.

ATTORNEYS June 17, 1969 L. D. TRUESDEL ET AL 3,450,292

FLAT MAT AND CRATE ASSEMBLED FROM SAME Sheet 3 of Filed May 31, 1967 s R m m A 62220; Zzzzes Z w; Q Z V Z ATTORNEYS United States Patent FLAT MAT AND CRATE ASSEMBLED FROM SAME Lem D. Truesdel and William P. Simmons, Jr., Macon,

Ga., assignors to Southern Crate & Veneer Company,

Macon, Ga., a corporation of Georgia Filed May 31, 1967, Ser. No. 642,546 Int. Cl. B65d 9/14 U.S. Cl. 217-47 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A flat mat and a crate folded therefrom having a tab on a paperboard end wall extending between an end of the cleat supporting the end wall and a side wall to give support to the cleat in addition to that provided by a flexible wire interconnecting the side wall and the end of the cleat.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention pertains to a flat mat and a crate assembled from this mat.

Prior art Collapsible crates for shipping poultry, vegetables, or fruits are well-known in the art. Many of these crates are assembled by the packer from a flat mat, an example being the crate disclosed in the patent to Newhouse, U.S. Patent No. 2,419,026.

One style of collapsible crates is assembled from a flat mat which has a bottom and two side walls and cleats attached to one of the side walls which support the two end walls. When this mat is folded into a crate, the end walls attached to the cleats are folded down to form a crate having three side walls and two end walls. A top is then telescoped or assembled in some manner on the open side after the fruit or vegetables have been packed in the crate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the last mentioned design of a flat mat, the two cleats supporting the end walls are attached only at one end to the side wall by the flexible wire or strap, and they will tend to flap or to be bent out of alignment with possible damage to the end walls. To overcome this defect in the construction of the mat, the present invention has provided an additional support means to increase the rigidity of the connections between the ends of the cleats and the side wall to prevent this movement of the cleats supporting the end member. Therefore, when the mat is assembled into the crate, the unattached end of the cleat will be in alignment with the opposite side wall so that the ends of the flexible wire or strap may be joined together to complete the assembly of the crate. Furthermore, the damage to the end walls caused by the movement of the cleats is eliminated.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a collapsible crate having a support means interconnecting an end of a cleat to a side wall to aid in assembling the crate from a flat mat.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a flat mat adapted to be assembled into a crate and having a support means interconnecting the end wall cleats to a side wall to stabilize the cleats so that they will be in alignment during the assembly of the crate.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a fiat mat to be assembled into a crate in which the end Wall members have a tab which is attached to the adjacent side Wall to provide additional support for the end wall and its cleat to insure alignment of the cleat during assembly of the mat into the crate.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a fiat mat adapted to be assembled into a crate in which the end wall members each have a tab which is secured between the cleat and slats of an adjacent side wall to support the end wall member and its respective cleat in the desired alignment during the assembly of the mat into a crate.

Many other advantages, features and additional objects of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description in the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.

As shown on the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a planned view of the flat mat prior to assembly into a crate;

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 illustrate the various stages of folding or assembling the flat mat of FIG. 1 into a crate;

FIG. 5 illustrates the crate assembled from the flat mat of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is an exploded view showing the position of the side wall slats and cleats with respect to the supporting tab of the end wall.

The principles of this invention are particularly useful when embodied in a flat mat such as illustrated in FIG. 1 and generally indicated by the numeral 10. The fiat mat 10 has three sides 11, 12 and 13 and a pair of end walls 14, 14.

The side 11 consists of a pair of slats 15, 15 which have side wall cleats 16, 16 at each end of the slats. The side 12 which may be a bottom wall of the assembled crate 17, shown in FIG. 5, is made up of slats 18, 18 with side wall cleats 19, 19 at each end of the slats 18 and the side 13 is made of slats 20, 20 interconnected at their ends by side wall cleats 21, 21. The end Walls 14, 14 each have a cleat 22 at one edge. Each of the cleats 16, 18, 20 and 22 have each of their ends tapered or mitered so that the cleats will form a rectangle, as shown in FIG. 5, when the mat 10 is assembled into the crate 17.

The sides 11, 12 and 13 and the end walls 14 are loosely hinged together by a pair of flexible means such as wires or bands 23, 23 which extend along each side 24, 24 of the mat 10. The bands 23, 23 are secured to the sides and the end walls by a plurality of stitches or staples 25 which pass through the slats into their respective side wall cleats and through the end walls 14, 14 into the respective cleats 22, 22 to not only hold the Wire to the various sides and end walls but to secure the slats to their respective side wall cleats and the end walls 14, 14 to the cleats 22, 22. Each of the wires 23 has end 26, 26 extending past the ends 27, 27 of the mat 10, and the ends 26, 26 may be formed into loops or bights.

As may be seen from FIG. 1, the various pairs of side wall cleats 16, 19 and 21 are substantially rigid because each pair is connected together by its respective slats. The cleats 22, 22 do not have this rigidity since the end Walls 14, 14 are not interconnected. Because of this lack of rigidity the cleats 22, 22 in the prior art flat mats would tend to be bent or be moved out of the substantially straight line formed by the sides 24, 24 of the mat 10. In order to correct this misalignment which caused problems during the assembly of the flat mat of the prior art into a crate, the mat 10 of the present invention has an additional support means 28, 28 interconnecting each cleat 22 and the adjacent end of cleat 21. As best illustrated in FIG. 6, the support means 28 comprises a tab extending from the corrugated paperboard end wall 14 which is secured to the cleat 22. The tab 28 is positioned between the cleat 21 and the uppermost slat 20a of the side 13, as illustrated in FIG. 4 and held in this position by stitches or staples 25a. The provision of the tab 28 adds rigidity to the otherwise loose connection made by the wire 23 and this rigidity prevents the cleat 22 from becoming misaligned during the handling of the flat mat 10 and during the folding or assembling of the mat into the crate 17 as shown in FIGS. 2-4.

The mat 10 is usually transported to the customer in the flat state. The customer will assemble the mat into the crate 17 by bending the various sides into the box shape shown in FIG. 3. Each of the cleats 22 supporting the end walls 14 are then bent down so that its free end 29 will contact the cleat 16 of the side 11. The ends 26, 26 of the wires 23 are then interconnected or twisted together, as shown in FIG. 4 at points 30, 30, to complete the assembly of the four cleats into the rectangular shape.

After the box has been wired together, the end walls 14, 14 are folded down, as shown in FIG. 4 in which one end wall 14a is shown already folded into the final position. To facilitate this folding each of the end walls 14, 14 may be scored along the line 31, best illustrated in FIG. 6. As shown in FIG. 3, the alignment of the cleat 22 with the cleat 16 facilitates the joining of the ends 26, 26 of the wire 23 and saves both labor and time required to re-align these two cleats while making the engagement between the ends 26, 26.

The crate 17, after being filled, is closed by a suitable lid which may be corrugated material and telescoped over the open side. The lid may have a projection at each end to be engaged in the groove or notch 32 in the cleat 22 under the wire 23 (as shown only in FIG.

As illustrated, the crate comprises wood cleats and wood veneer slats. The end walls 14, 14 are corrugated paperboard. It should be noted that the slats could be made of reinforced paperboard or any suitable plastic material.

The support means or tabs 28 not only facilitate the alignment of the ends 29 of the cleats 22 with the side cleat 16 during the assembly of the flat mat into the crate 17, but also prevent the end wall members 14 and the cleats 22 from flapping or becoming misaligned while the mat 10 is being handled. This prevention of the misalignment or flapping of the cleat 22 and the end wall 14 will also reduce damages to the corrugated paperboard end walls which would occur during the handling of the flat mat 10 if the cleats 22 were free to shift or move with respect to the remaining portion of the mat.

Although various minor modifications might be suggested by those versed in the art, it should be understood that we wish to employ within the scope of the patent warranted thereon all such embodiments as reasonably and properly come within the scope of our contribution to the art.

We claim as our invention:

1. A flat mat adapted to be folded into a crate having a pair of cleats extending between two side walls at their ends, respectively, to define an open side in the crate, said mat comprising:

(a) a plurality of side walls, each having ends;

(b) a pair of flexible means loosely attaching said side walls together in a side-by-side relationship at their ends, respectively;

(c) a pair of cleats, each having one end loosely attached to a respective end of one of said side walls by the flexible means;

(d) a pair of members, each member being attached to one of said cleats and being adapted to be folded to form an end wall for said crate; and

(e) support means extending between each of said cleats and its respective end of said one side wall to hold each of said cleats in alignment with said respective end of said one side wall so that as the mat is being folded into a crate, the other ends of said cleats are disposed adjacent the ends of the other of said side walls, respectively, to define the open side of the crate.

2. A flat mat according to claim 1, wherein each member of said pair is a paperboard member and wherein said support means is a tab on said paperboard member, said tabs extending to said one side wall and attached thereto.

3. A flat mat according to claim 2, in which said side Walls include a slat and a side wall cleat at each end of said slat and each of said tabs is attached to said one side wall by being secured between said side wall cleat and said slat.

4. A flat mat according to claim 3, in which said members have a score adjacent said cleat to facilitate the bending of said member to form said end walls.

5. A crate comprising in combination:

(a) a bottom wall;

(b) a pair of side walls disposed on opposite sides of said bottom wall with an edge of each side wall adjacent to a respective side of said bottom wall;

(c) a cleat disposed at each end of said pair of side walls and extending therebetween at an edge of each of said side walls opposite said first-mentioned edge to define an open side of the crate;

(d) an end wall attached to each of said cleats, said end wall being a paperboard member;

(e) a pair of flexible means extending around said crate at the end of said side walls, connecting said pair of said side walls to said bottom and connecting one end of each of said cleats to an adjacent end of one of said pairs of said side walls, each of said flexible means having two ends, one end extending past the second-mentioned edge of the other of said pair of side walls and the other end extending past the other end of each of the cleats, said ends of said flexible means being interengagable to secure said cleat to said other of said pair of side walls; and

(f) a tab on each of said paperboard members, said tab defining a support means extending between each of said cleats and the adjacent end of said one of said pair of side walls to hold said cleats in alignment while said crate is being assembled and said ends of said flexible means are being engaged.

6. A crate according to claim 5, in which said one of said pair of side walls consists of a slat having a side wall cleat at each end thereof, and said tab is attached to said side wall by being secured between said slat and said side wall cleat.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,845,194 2/ 1932 Rosenmund. 1,964,099 6/ 1934 Walstrom. 1,966,875 7/1934 Tufts. 2,035,992 3/ 1936 Sirnec. 2,039,859 5/ 1936 Watkins. 2,329,170 9/ 1943 Boese. 2,698,109 12/1954 Hogan et al.

'RAPHAEL H. SCHWARTZ, Primary Examiner. 

